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We recently watched Spellbound, a documentary film about the National Spelling Bee — and it made us wonder about bee (though not, rest assured, how to spell it).

Bee in this sense means (as the OED puts it):

In allusion to the social character of the insect...: A meeting of neighbours to unite their labours for the benefit of one of their number.... Hence, with extended sense: A gathering or meeting for some object; esp. spelling-bee, a party assembled to compete in the spelling of words.

I have to add, however, that they've missed a nuance of this distinctively American usage, and it's one that makes shorter the jump to the specifically (if not stingingly) competitive spelling bee. At rural working bees (such as husking bees or quilting bees) there was characteristically a good-naturedly competitive dimension to the work. In other words, the social analogy with bees may have begun with common labor but was ironically extended by the competitive impulse we humans have to distinguish ourselves as individuals.

Though who knows? Perhaps bees race each other, too.

first published Oct 11, 2004